sf2la wrote:I'm ambivalent about it because it's another war film. Eh....but great cast. It seems you can't go wrong tied to Clooney.

Yes, why can't he do a quiet little indie British film called "The Grandmother" or "Re-Enduring Love".

Being the one who constantly whines about him not doing indie films anymore, normally I would be agreeing with you gals.

But after two under-performers (C&A and Dragon) and one complete belly-flop (DH), as a male lead he was starting to look like a precarious bet for anything without 007 in the title.

I think he can only travel so far on praises for his own performance while the films around him fail to hit the expected mark. If he had gone for an indie role at this point, it could have been said that "he can't carry any lead except Bond, so he's playing safe in projects not expected to draw big box office".

In this one he will not be shouldering the responsibility alone. This is a happy medium....not indie and not blockbuster, it looks like it will be a solid movie which (unless Clooney has lost his mojo) will be at the very least a modest success and will break the run of almost-hits and flops.

I'm also pleased to see him doing anything at all so soon after Skyfall. I was truly getting very worried about the lack of entries on his schedule. Hence the energetic dancing and smiley faces from "the indie gal".

sf2la wrote:I'm ambivalent about it because it's another war film. Eh....but great cast. It seems you can't go wrong tied to Clooney.

To me it didn't sound like it's just another war movie with fights and explosions and beating of the chest with pseudo patriotism.
The premise sounds thrilling enough with a race against time feel to it.
Its the setting that makes it sound like a war movie I guess.

Nonetheless I am happy he got to make a movie with GC (a HW darling) and other heavyweights.
Its not just riding on his shoulders alone, so that's a relief.
Not an indie either which will struggle for distribution. This has big studios behind it so its all good to me.

He was at the Ides of March premiere in NYC and was probably impressed with the movie and GC's writing/direction and no doubt wanted to work with him given the right script.
This fits him tbh. He might play a European char. Has the looks and he can fake the accent if needed.

This cannot go wrong especially if the movie is ready this time next year

I hope we can hear more about his role soon. Maybe he will share some details during the ongoing press for Skyfall?

From 1943 to 1951, 350 or so men and women from thirteen Allied nations served as the men and women of the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives section (MFAA) of the Allied armed forces, the eyes, ears and hands of the first and most ambitious effort in history to preserve the world's cultural heritage in times of war. They were known simply as Monuments Men. But during the thick of the fighting in Europe, from D-Day to V-E Day, when Germany surrendered, there were only sixty-five Monuments Men in the forward operating area. Sixty-five men to cover thousands of square miles, save hundreds of damaged buildings and find millions of cultural items before the Nazis could destroy them forever. "Monuments Men" is the story of eight of these men in the forward operating theatre: America's top art conservator; an up-and-coming young museum curator; a sculptor; a straight-arrow architect; a gay New York cultural impresario; and, an infantry private with no prior knowledge of or appreciation for art, but first-hand experience as a victim of the Nazi regime. They built their own treasure maps from scraps and hints: the diary of a Louvre curator who secretly tracked Nazi plunder through the Paris rail yards; records recovered from bombed out cathedrals and museums; overheard conversations; and, a tip from a dentist while getting a root canal. They started off moving in different directions, but ended up heading for the same place at the same time: the Alps near the German-Austrian border in the last two weeks of the war, where the great treasure caches of the Nazis were stored: the artwork of Paris, stolen mostly from Jewish collectors and dealers; masterworks from the museums of Naples and Florence; and, the greatest prize of all, Hitler's personal hoard of masterpieces, looted from the most important art collections and museums in Europe and hidden deep within a working salt mine - a mine the Nazis had every intention of destroying before it fell into Allied hands. How does the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History end? As is often the case, history is often more extraordinary than fiction.

It will be interesting which part will be played by Daniel.
I guess "America's top art conservator" will be played by Clooney.
The "up-and-coming young museum curator" ---> hmm??
"sculptor" ---> I can imagine that
"straight-arrow architect" ---> I can imagine that too
"gay New York cultural impresario" ---> he can do gay
"an infantry private with no prior knowledge of or appreciation for art, but first-hand experience as a victim of the Nazi regime" ---> no problem for Daniel

So this are 5 Monument men, but 7 actors are mentioned in the Deadline-article. Will he be one of the Monuments Men, or one of the Nazis??

Questions, Questions, Questions....

but it sure isn't just another War Movie. A look into the foreword of the book says: Edsel's book os a thriller, in the style of indiana Jones, but in this case it's all fact and great history.

Blanchett will play the role of Rose Valland, an art historian and member of the French resistance. Dujardin, who became the first French actor to win an Oscar for Best Actor earlier this year (for "The Artist"), will play a supporting role in this story about a group of men and women who chased down the stolen art of Europe during World War II.[/quote]

sf2la wrote:I'm ambivalent about it because it's another war film. Eh....but great cast. It seems you can't go wrong tied to Clooney.

Yes, why can't he do a quiet little indie British film called "The Grandmother" or "Re-Enduring Love".

Being the one who constantly whines about him not doing indie films anymore, normally I would be agreeing with you gals.

But after two under-performers (C&A and Dragon) and one complete belly-flop (DH), as a male lead he was starting to look like a precarious bet for anything without 007 in the title.

I think he can only travel so far on praises for his own performance while the films around him fail to hit the expected mark. If he had gone for an indie role at this point, it could have been said that "he can't carry any lead except Bond, so he's playing safe in projects not expected to draw big box office".

In this one he will not be shouldering the responsibility alone. This is a happy medium....not indie and not blockbuster, it looks like it will be a solid movie which (unless Clooney has lost his mojo) will be at the very least a modest success and will break the run of almost-hits and flops.

I'm also pleased to see him doing anything at all so soon after Skyfall. I was truly getting very worried about the lack of entries on his schedule. Hence the energetic dancing and smiley faces from "the indie gal".

Couldn't agree moore and said it often - an Indie would be a geste of failure right now. With Clooney he might get into the american liga of stars, which he is not yet. He will get exposure without having to be the main atration and sell the film alone. Big relief, yes. Also it might not take ages to shoot for im and there might still be time for some teater. Plus, this film might show at the end of the year, gearing p for Oscar, whilst he starts shooting Bond again. Couldn't be better IMO.

The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

Skyfall star takes role in factual period drama about US and British taskforce charged with recovering art stolen by the Nazis

James Bond star Daniel Craig has joined the cast of George Clooney's Nazi art drama The Monuments Men, according to the Wrap.

The period film, which Clooney is co-writing and directing, centres on a real-life group of men and women who risked their lives to track down art stolen by Hitler during the second world war and prevent its destruction. Producers were previously reported to be courting Oscar-winners Jean Dujardin and Cate Blanchett for roles; both are now said to have signed on the dotted line, along with Bill Murray, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville and Bob Balaban.

Clooney is also taking a leading role as US army officer and leading art conservationist George Stout, who repatriated tens of thousands of pieces of art from the Nazis. Blanchett portrays Rose Valland, an art historian and member of the French resistance. At this stage it is not clear which role Craig, star of Sam Mendes's new Bond film, Skyfall, is due to take.

The Monuments Men, which Clooney has written with Grant Heslov, is based on Robert Edsel's book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. It centres on the 11-month period between D-day and VE-day, when a taskforce of American and British art experts were charged with scouring Europe for lost and stolen art. Production is due to start on 1 March 2013 in Germany, Austria, Paris and England.

In other Bond news, Roger Moore has said he believes Steven Spielberg only made the Indiana Jones films after allegedly being turned down for the long-running spy series in the late 70s. Moore, who played 007 seven times between 1973 and 1985, reveals in his forthcoming book My Word Is My Bond that he once met Spielberg in Paris to discuss the possibility of the young director working on a Bond movie.

"He was a huge Bond fan and said that he would love to direct one of the films," writes Moore. "He'd recently had great success with Jaws and Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] and was considered a very hot property. I was rather excited at this news and went looking for [Bond producer Albert R] Broccoli to tell him."

Moore revealed Broccoli, who oversaw the Bond franchise for more than three decades, shook his head and asked: "Do you know how much of a percentage he'd want?" The actor added: "It's always been policy that no Bond director ever got a slice of the box-office profits, so Spielberg went off and made Indiana Jones, who[m] I reckon to be a period James Bond."

Moore, 85, also told the BBC while promoting the book that he would love to play a villain in the series, or return as 007's boss at MI6.

... Germany is involved! In any way (maybe with Filmförderung) or Babelsberg studios or things that really happen to some art or location. (that gives me hope for Dresden maybe).
BTW, I remember the extras call for Tarantions Ing. Bastards. He wanted people looking very natural...nothing done with the hair. I can't deliver that.)

From 1943 to 1951, 350 or so men and women from thirteen Allied nations served as the men and women of the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives section (MFAA) of the Allied armed forces, the eyes, ears and hands of the first and most ambitious effort in history to preserve the world's cultural heritage in times of war. They were known simply as Monuments Men. But during the thick of the fighting in Europe, from D-Day to V-E Day, when Germany surrendered, there were only sixty-five Monuments Men in the forward operating area. Sixty-five men to cover thousands of square miles, save hundreds of damaged buildings and find millions of cultural items before the Nazis could destroy them forever. "Monuments Men" is the story of eight of these men in the forward operating theatre: America's top art conservator; an up-and-coming young museum curator; a sculptor; a straight-arrow architect; a gay New York cultural impresario; and, an infantry private with no prior knowledge of or appreciation for art, but first-hand experience as a victim of the Nazi regime. They built their own treasure maps from scraps and hints: the diary of a Louvre curator who secretly tracked Nazi plunder through the Paris rail yards; records recovered from bombed out cathedrals and museums; overheard conversations; and, a tip from a dentist while getting a root canal. They started off moving in different directions, but ended up heading for the same place at the same time: the Alps near the German-Austrian border in the last two weeks of the war, where the great treasure caches of the Nazis were stored: the artwork of Paris, stolen mostly from Jewish collectors and dealers; masterworks from the museums of Naples and Florence; and, the greatest prize of all, Hitler's personal hoard of masterpieces, looted from the most important art collections and museums in Europe and hidden deep within a working salt mine - a mine the Nazis had every intention of destroying before it fell into Allied hands. How does the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History end? As is often the case, history is often more extraordinary than fiction.

It will be interesting which part will be played by Daniel.
I guess "America's top art conservator" will be played by Clooney.
The "up-and-coming young museum curator" ---> hmm??
"sculptor" ---> I can imagine that
"straight-arrow architect" ---> I can imagine that too
"gay New York cultural impresario" ---> he can do gay
"an infantry private with no prior knowledge of or appreciation for art, but first-hand experience as a victim of the Nazi regime" ---> no problem for Daniel

So this are 5 Monument men, but 7 actors are mentioned in the Deadline-article. Will he be one of the Monuments Men, or one of the Nazis??

Questions, Questions, Questions....

but it sure isn't just another War Movie. A look into the foreword of the book says: Edsel's book os a thriller, in the style of indiana Jones, but in this case it's all fact and great history.

Germangirl wrote:The script and the characters MUST be great, if he signs up NOT knowing WHOM he will play. Very reassuring. ..

What makes you thing that he doesn't know which character he will play?

Maybe it's just that we (and the journalists, blogger) don't know.

IMO, there is NO reason to not give it away, if it was known.

Nobody had asked to him during the Bond promo, so he didn't refuse to answer that question. I'm sure he didn't sign a contract without knowing which part he will be playing. If he did, I would fire his agent.